After redshirting in 2015, he played in 13 games as a redshirt freshman and 13 more last year.

With four players from last year’s rotation gone, including three who made NFL rosters, Landers has seen his role evolve from young guy looking to contribute to old hat hoping to hand down knowledge.

His message for a group of defensive tackles that includes five first- or second-year players who were four- or five-star recruits: The game will slow down as experience builds, so learn from any mistakes along the way.

“Once the game slows down, it’s almost like high school again,” Landers said. “The biggest thing when you’re young is learning how to be patient, especially coming out of high school with all these accolades.”

The next challenge will come Saturday from an improving Rutgers team that beat Texas State 35-7 in its opener.

The Scarlet Knights had one of the worst offenses in college football last season, though an offensive line that returns three starters was one of the bright spots.

“All the way across the board their O-line is very good,” Landers said. “They’re very athletic. They’re big. They’re pretty mobile. They work well together. They’re good at picking up different stunts and communicating. It will be a good challenge for us that will show us where we are as a front four.”

The Scarlet Knights are sure to try to take advantage of some of the issues Ohio State’s defense had in a season-opening win against Oregon State, a 77-31 blowout that featured a lot of offensive fireworks on both sides.

“Those were little mistakes we made that were just very uncommon for our defense,” Landers said. “We’ve got to go back to the drawing board after every game and just fix and tweak the little things, make sure we’re solidified with our fundamentals.”